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My Philosophy
on Collecting Antique Mechanical Music
By: Marty Roenigk
I have been collecting antique
mechanical musical instruments for some forty years now, and
have been dealing in them for over 35 years. Prior to mechanical
music I was an avid collector of coins, having compiled a pretty
extensive collection of U.S. half dollars. This was an aspect of
my interests with which my wife, Elise, shared no common bond
whatsoever – she found coins very boring! One day, while
deigning to visit a coin shop with me, we both discovered a new
Thorens disc music box. It was so intriguing, and so different
from the “jewelry box” musical movements we had been used to,
that it kicked off a lifetime of interest in mechanical music.
It was not long before, through my usual avid interest in
research and “buy the book first”, that we learned about antique
mechanical music and we saw our first real example (a Regina 15
½” disc music box) at an antique shop near Antioch College in
Yellow Springs, Ohio, where I was teaching at the time. While
that music box was not for sale, we soon discovered George
Bidden of Warwick RI and bought our first “real” music box – on
time! Not only had we embarked on a lifetime of fun and
enjoyment and discovery in this field of antique mechanical
music, but we also were eventually able to return the favor that
George Bidden granted us – some time ago, once we were
financially able to, we began offering time payments to our
customers, both new and old alike, to encourage the collection
and preservation and enjoyment of these great pieces.
Enjoyment. So why do I enjoy antique mechanical music so
much? For one thing you are collecting something that you can
not only see but you can hear! Not only does it “move”, but it
creates music! And a fascinating aspect to me is that this is
the very same music, the exact sound, that someone, or some
family, was listening to in their parlor, or at their tavern or
restaurant or skating rink, as much as two hundred years ago.
And I can share that fascination with my friends. Do my friends
really want to look at 100 (1000?) “different” coins or stamps?
I don’t think so. Do they want to marvel at antique technology
that creates music more brilliant and real than today’s most
advanced media? I think so, at least that has been my
experience.
Technical Sophistication. Another reason I find mechanical
music so fascinating is that it is so beyond my capabilities. I
have no mechanical aptitude whatsoever. So when I look at these
sophisticated mechanical machines, and realize what amazing
feats they are accomplishing, that long ago technicians
accomplished in far more rudimentary workshops/factories than we
have today, to me that is really fascinating and enduring.
Research Material. There is an enormous amount of reading
material on the historical and technical aspects of antique
mechanical music, seemingly much more than the field would seem
to deserve given the relatively small size of the collector
population. Highly productive authors such as Harvey Roehl, Dave
Bowers, Arthur Ord-Hume and many others have written numerous
books on the subject. Publications like those of the Musical Box
Society International, the Musical Box Society of Great Britain,
the Automatic Musical Instrument Collectors Association, and
many fine foreign societies have been publishing journals for as
long as sixty years just full of interesting articles. While
most of the books are now out of print, they are pretty readily
available on the internet through various websites, and we
maintain a large supply of out of print books on our website as
well. I would guess that my library of books on antique
mechanical music totals over one hundred books, not to mention
hundreds of journals and catalogs.
Range of Values. While most antique mechanical music has
risen in value of the years to some pretty healthy prices, there
is still a wide range of values. A beginning collector can start
with phonographs that begin in the low hundreds of dollars, or
modern Reuge or Thorens music boxes. Very fine examples of
antique music boxes can be bought for less than $3000. Those who
are handy, who are mechanically inclined, can still find pieces
requiring varying degrees of restoration at bargain prices (you
wouldn’t believe the condition of some of the items we are
offered). While this is not an inexpensive hobby, there is a
wide range of values available.
Counterfeiting. I read an article recently in Coin World
(yes, I still read the publication, even though I don’t collect
coins – but I am a 50% owner of a mint, figuring any business
that can mint coins ought to be able to make money) that
revealed the extent of the counterfeiting problem with coins.
There are literally one hundred businesses in China making
counterfeit coins. Imagine. Here’s a little coin that is hard
enough for an older fellow like me to even grade, and now I have
to figure out if it is counterfeit to boot. What fun is that?
While there may be a risk of some reproduction parts on a fine
antique mechanical musical instrument, there is little risk of
counterfeits. In fact, the few reproductions that are being made
(Porter Music Box Company, Stinson Organs, Miner Calliopes and a
few others) generally cost more than the originals! I take a lot
of comfort in this, in knowing rather easily that what I am
collecting wasn’t made last week in somebody’s glass furnace or
an Indonesian wood shop or a Chinese mint. The ratio of cost to
reproduce vs the current value of our antique mechanical musical
instruments is too low for counterfeiters to think of bothering
with – they have far more fertile fields.
Theft Proof. Well, not really, but it takes a lot more time
and effort to steal a few music boxes or coin pianos than it
does to steal a briefcase full of coins or a pillow case full of
sterling silver. Our stuff tends to be more identifiable as well
– with serial numbers, tune titles, and lots of individuality
through acquired distinctive marks from years of use and wear.
CAUTION – be sure to thoroughly photo document your collection,
and write down serial numbers. It is also a good idea to record
the tunes on your cylinder boxes and the titles on your music
discs – easy means of identifying/differentiating your machines
if they are stolen.
Intrinsic Value. This is purely subjective, but it seems to
me that market prices in our field of antique mechanical music
are far lower relative to rarity and original cost than in most
any other field. We can buy fine antique music boxes today for
roughly the inflation adjusted original cost of that music box.
And the better pieces are exceptionally scarce (I only use the
term “rare” for items with less than 12 examples likely extant),
far scarcer than the better pieces in most other collecting
fields. The “rarest” coins routinely sell for over $1,000,000. A
Honus Wagner baseball card can sell for $500,000. A fine vintage
Ferrari, more akin to our mechanical music, will set you back
$400,000 - $800,000 or potentially much more and yet cannot be
considered “rare” by any classical definition. You can buy truly
exceptional antique mechanical musical instruments for well
under $50,000. Imagine – I believe I could put together one of
the very finest and largest truly world-class collections of
antique mechanical music for the price of just one of dozens of
paintings, classical or contemporary, selling at Sotheby’s or
Christie’s last year for more than $5,000,000 each. It would
take up a lot more space, but boy would it be a lot more fun
than looking at one painting on the wall, a painting which,
incidentally, with modern enhanced Giclee print reproduction
techniques, could be visually almost replicated for $500.
Therapy. Somebody said “music warms the soul”. It sure does
something to calm me down and take me away from the problems of
the day-to-day world. And when I can listen to music played on
marvels of antique technology that sound exactly (assuming
proper restoration of course!) like they did when their original
owner listened to them 100 – 150 years ago, I am transported to
another time, truly “Someplace In Time”. What a wonderful
respite.
Investment. Is antique mechanical music a good investment?
Who knows what is a good investment today. I do know that any
mechanical music instrument that I bought in my early collecting
days is worth a whole lot more today, perhaps on average ten
times as much as when I was first buying in the early 1970’s. On
the other hand values have been sort of flattish to even down
for most types of antique mechanical music over the past ten
years or so. Perhaps that makes this a particularly apropos time
to start or add to your collection. Or perhaps not. But what I
do know is that your collection of antique mechanical musical
instruments will give you immense personal satisfaction, and the
chances are it will also prove to be a fine investment over the
long term. And it doesn’t hurt to have some tangible assets in
these turbulent times.
- Marty Roenigk
Postscript: My good friend
Q. David Bowers, who in my opinion has done more for the antique
mechanical music hobby than anyone else (he was a pioneer in the
1960's working to preserve and resell these fabulous
instruments, and was responsible for some of the earliest modern
literature on the history of the instruments including the
"bible" of our hobby "The Encyclopedia of Automatic Musical
Instruments" which is available on our website) took some
justified exception to my elucidation of my philosophy of
collecting mechanical musical instruments. Dave is perhaps the
best known coin dealer in the world, and is the most profuse
writer about coins and coin collecting in history - having
dozens of books and hundreds of amazing thorough and informative
auction catalogs to his credit. Dave understandably took
exception to some of my comments about coin collecting. While I
am not prepared to retract those comments since they reflect
admittedly personal biases, Dave is absolutely correct that we
should all be supportive of all of the collecting hobbies and
that there is indeed an enormous amount of cross-collecting,
especially among coin collectors who are naturally curious and
represent the largest category of collecting I believe (I once
read that stamp collectors were more numerous but I doubt that).
In any event, I wanted to "publish" Dave's comments, which he
also placed on the website of Stack's (www.stacks.com),
the preeminent coin dealer organization in the country.
Please click here to read Dave's comments
and to see some neat photos.
- Marty
Roenigk
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